By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford are supposedly negotiating a fight for June 5th on ESPN pay-per-view in Abu Dhabi. We’ll soon see if this fight becomes a reality.
The fight isn’t official yet, so there’s a possibility that it might not happen. in that case, Crawford’s Plan-B option is Shawn Porter, the former IBF welterweight champion that has been pushing hard for the fight.
There won’t be anywhere near the same amount of interest from boxing fans in a fight between Crawford and Porter, but that’s all there is. Crawford has already rejected the idea of facing Errol Spence Jr and Vergil Ortiz Jr. Terence has pretty much put all his eggs in one basket, hoping he’ll get the Pacquiao fight.
If no Pacquiao match, it’ll be Porter staring Crawford in the face on June 5th. That’ll be a tough fight for Crawford, who has no inside game to speak of.
Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank said on Monday that he’s going to have an announcement for his next fight this week. If that announcement doesn’t come, it’ll be safe to say that Crawford WON’T be fighting Pacquiao.
The fans shouldn’t get their hopes up for this fight because we’ve seen Pacquiao go off in a direction before when a top fighter was interested in facing him.
Who can forget when Pacquiao entered the ring after Errol Spence’s win over Mikey Garcia in 2019, and seemingly agreed to fight Errol, but then went in a different direction to face a faded Keith Thurman.
Mike Coppinger of The Athletic says the Pacquiao vs. Crawford fight, if it happens, will need to take place in Abu Dhabi. That’s obviously where the big site fee offer is being generated by someone. Whoever this person or organization is, they’re eager to see
Crawford’s promoters at Top Rank have let ESPN and In-Demand know that they want June 5th on hold for the possible contest against the 42-year-old Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs).
Arum, who used to promote Pacquiao, would deserve a lot of credit if he can put the fight together with Crawford. He’s been trying to get Pacquiao to fight Crawford for years ever since they were both with Top Rank.
Assuming the deal gets made for June 5th in Abu Dhabi, Crawford will be facing his first elite-fighter during his 13-year professional career, which began in 2008.
Even though Pacquiao is faded and nowhere near the guy he was in 2013, he still presents a massive step up in class for Crawford from the fighters he’s been facing during his career. Crawford’s promoters haven’t for whatever reason matched him up against dangerous foes.
Is it because no one has wanted to fight him because he’s a switch-hitting, counter-punching defensive artist with power, or is it his lack of personality, inability to sell fights the way more charismatic fighters can?
Given the 42-year-old Pacquiao’s advanced age and his two years of inactivity, Crawford won’t receive full credit if he beats him on June 5th. I don’t think Crawford cares about all that.
The money that he’ll get from the fight with Manny will have him crying all the way to the bank if the fans don’t make a big deal if he wins.
Presumably, a win for Crawford over Pacquiao will help his career, making him a pay-per-view fighter that the top welterweights are eager to fight. But it might not work that way.
If Crawford wins and still isn’t a PPV fighter, and continues to be ignored by the PBC welterweights, he’ll have to be satisfied with the Pacquiao being his one big fight during his career.